A Booboo
by Emmy Kay
Summary: Hinata is a kindergarten teacher. What's Naruto doing in her classroom? NaruHina. Very fluffy. Oneshot.


Title: A Boo-boo.

Claimer/Author: This story is written by and belongs to Emmy Kay.

Pairing: Hinata/Naruto

Summary: Hinata is a pre-school teacher, so what is Naruto doing in her classroom? NaruHina. Super fluffy. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: Naruto and all affiliated characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi. This story is written without permission and for personal/fan/nonprofit entertainment purposes only.

Personal note: This is my first attempt at a fanfic of any sort – so please enjoy and please kindly review.

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It was a beautiful sunny day, with a warm breeze blowing the scent of late spring through the village.

A hint of a smile touched Hinata's mouth as she looked at the varying moods on the young faces in front of her. Certainly none of her students looked interested in staying late today.

She had become a teacher of the youngest class of students at the Ninja Academy in Konoha almost as an accident. After failing to make jonin rank over a year ago, at what seemed already the late age of 21, she had been lost, unable to determine her next step in life. She had already gone so far as to move out of the Hyuuga house, unable to live in a place she had felt so unwanted, and so….so…unnecessary. Especially since her younger sister Hanabi had been made the official heiress of the family.

Then, providence in the form of Tsunade-sama as Hokage stepped in. The previous kindergarten teacher _had_ become a jonin, but to become an active mission-taking ninja meant leaving his class instructor-less. But the village was still very much rebuilding its ranks of high-level ninjas. But a class without a teacher was unacceptable. So a word from Kurenai-sensei in Tsunade-sama's ear brought up Hinata's name and before Hinata knew it, she found herself up to her eyeballs in education manuals, children's developmental theory texts, early shinobi exercise workbooks and lesson plans.

Hinata had been a little afraid of facing these students, but after an initially bumpy, occasionally panic-fueled couple of weeks, she found that she loved teaching.

She glanced up at the clock that hung over the door. "It's a little early, but let's go outside for lunch, children. You can go outside until the big hand reaches the 6." (They had been working on telling time last week, but a little review never hurt.) Hinata had decided early on that one of the best things she could do for her small group of 10 was to provide not only education, but enough breaks and time for the information to sink in. Ten 4-year-olds could do a lot of damage while they were cooped up.

They whooped in glee, and before Hinata could reach the door, someone had already pulled it open and dashed out. "Remember – the big hand reaches the 6," she called to the retreating backs – knowing more than half wouldn't have heard.

She shook her head, smiling. It was always this way – but she wouldn't change a thing. She opened her backpack, looking for her own bento box. Maybe she would eat lunch and work on the endless progress reports required of teachers.

"Oi, Hinata!" a familiar voice hollered down the hall. "Where are you?"

She raced toward the hallway, activating Byakugan as she did so. Her heart lept into her mouth. It couldn't be….

It was. Naruto Uzumaki stood at the end of her hallway, hands up around his mouth, ready to yell again. Dressed in his characteristic orange and black, his yellow hair spiking all over his head – it was unmistakable. When she had been a young girl, she had dreamed of a moment like this – and now that it had happened, she found herself mortified.

She skidded to halt, and then frantically gestured him into her classroom, glancing around anxiously as she did so, only relaxing when Hinata realized most of the other classrooms were as empty as hers. Flushing, she gave a helpless little shrug to Iruka-sensei as he poked his head out a door. Seemingly satisfied, he disappeared back into his office.

"Hinata!" Naruto cried out cheerfully, striding down the academy hall as if he were down the main thoroughfare in Konoha. "I was looking for you."

"Oh?" she asked, half wanting to die of embarrassment that the number one noisy ninja in all of the Leaf Village would alert absolutely everybody in the building, half wanting to die because _he_ was actually in her classroom – and he was looking for_ her._ "Wh – why, Naruto-kun?" She had worked with great effort, to minimize her stuttering, but the ultimate cure, she had learned, rather sadly, was the virtually complete loss of hope of garnering his attention.

Still, much to her annoyance, this crushing of hope didn't seem to help her sound any less foolish around him. If only Naruto didn't have that amazingly infectious smile, if only he weren't so funny (even if he didn't mean to be), and if only he wasn't so thoughtful and protective of others – maybe she wouldn't sound like a badly wound-up toy around him. If only she herself wasn't such a failure. Her thoughts screeched to a halt – this way of thinking had never been helpful, and would not start helping her now.

She grabbed the edge of her desk and took a deep breath, suddenly aware of the dry smell of chalk dust in the air, the distant sounds of children in the playground, and the way the sunlight filled the classroom, limning the plain wooden desks and benches with gold. "You were looking for me?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, standing a few feet away in front of her. "Kiba said you were looking for some help next week for your students." He was looking around the classroom in an interested way. "It's been a while since I've been in this room."

"Kiba said I needed help, did he?" Hinata thought hard. When had she asked her old teammate for help?

"Yeah, something about demonstrating some taijutsu – you needing a partner. And since Lee and Guy are both are missions right now - " he flashed a brilliant smile, "I'm the best choice! I can kage bunshin and the clones can do all sorts of moves!"

Taijutsu? Hinata started to frown – she really couldn't remember talking to anyone about anything like that at all. A thought occurred to her, rooting her to the spot. Kiba was setting her up! Just you wait 'til I have a word with you, Kiba-kun!

"Ano sa, ano sa, I've got just the thing." The young blond man reached for a pocket, and then another, and then another. "I just had it," he said, a little puzzled. Naruto started patting himself down, and after a flurry of movement, halted. He unzipped his jacket and pulled a scroll from an interior pocket. With a flourish, he whipped it open, "The ultimate little kids' taijutsu instructions - Ta –Daaa- _owwww!_" Faster than Hinata could follow, he dropped the scroll to the floor, and put his hand to his mouth, hissing a little between his teeth.

"Let me see," Hinata said, firmly. In a situation like this, she felt she was on steadier ground. After all, nothing made cuts and scrapes like a group of young children.

"It's just a paper cut." Naruto clenched his fist, but that only seemed to make the wound sting more, as he winced visibly.

"Those are the worst." She reached into her pack and pulled out a compact, clearly well-used first-aid kit. "Bunnies or smileys?"

"What?" he sounded incredulous.

Hinata swallowed hard, and tried not to think about what she was doing. She repeated, "Bunnies or smileys? See?" she showed him the pack of bandages. She stepped closer to him, bringing to the fore how much taller he was than she now – and how he smelled like sunshine and wind. Hinata bent her head and took his hand. With a little gentle pressure, he opened it. His hand was beautiful – large and capable, tanned from the outdoors, calloused from all his hard work. The only flaw she could see was a shallow slice incised across his palm, a little blood seeping slowly from the wound.

"You don't have to – I heal really fast," Naruto said sheepishly, lifting his other hand to scrub the back of his head.

She looked up quickly, the curtain of blue-black hair parting on her forehead to frame her pale face and intent grey eyes. "Don't be silly."

Hinata turned back to her task. "Keep it open like that," she ordered. She applied a little ointment, and then opened up a couple self-adhesive bandages. "You're lucky," she said, a light note in her voice. "It's bunnies _and_ smileys." After smoothing the bandages on, she bent a little further over his hand and pressed warm lips against his palm, her exhaled breath a small benediction against his skin.

Then she froze. "Oh!" She thrust his hand away like it was on fire. She turned red so fast, she felt as if her face was burned. What foolish thing had she done now? "I-I d-d-didn't m-m-mean t-to do th-th-that." She took a deep breath, feeling herself going from red to white to puce. "Sorry. Sorry sorry sorry - I just do that for the kids, and I'm so used to it – a kiss makes it all better – and they get so many little bumps and bruises – nothing fixes it like a little l-l-lo -" she shut her mouth with a snap, a fist rising up to press against it, maybe to snatch back that careless rush of words. Hinata felt faint. She wanted to run away. She wanted the earth to just open up and swallow her whole, right now. She wanted to _die._

The blond head was bent downward, the forehead protector casting a shadow over the usually bright blue eyes. Naruto traced over the little cartoon rabbits and smiley faces that decorated the bandages with his forefinger. He curled his fingers over his palm slowly, thoughtfully. He straightened up after a moment and then grinned directly at her. "I wish you had been my teacher instead of Iruka-sensei."

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A/N

1. school in Japan generally starts at age 6, but given that Kakashi graduated from the academy at age 5 and made chuunin at 6 - I frontloaded a couple of extra years.

2. Really thought about whether Naruto should use the 'chan' suffix with Hinata's name here – and decided, based on early episodes of Shippuuden, to leave it off.

3. In case anyone's counting, this would have been #5 of the Thirty Kisses challenge. ("Ano sa").


End file.
